Medical transcription the choice of many WAHMs

If you’re looking for an at-home business that offers flexible hours and interesting work as well as consistent pay, you should consider medical transcription.

Many a mom who works at home has chosen transcription work as their go-to business because they can control their schedule. But there is a generous amount of work available, so earnings are consistent.

Why become an at-home transcriptionist?

There are many advantages to doing transcription at home. You can control your hours and do the work whenever it suits you (as long as you meet deadlines and deliver work when it’s due), and you can work exclusively at home, never needing to leave if you don’t want to. The work can be interesting and the pay can be good, depending on how experienced you are and how smart you are at setting your rates.

However, to be a transcriptionist, you need to either have past experience doing this kind of work (perhaps at a job outside the home) or you must take classes. If you decide to run your own business, it can be hard to get clients initially, but if you work for another company that simply sends the work your way, you might not make as much as you would with your own business. The advantage of working for another company, of course, is that you don’t have to seek out your own clients.

Training

If you are entering the medical transcription field for the first time, you must take some classes in this field. The terminology is complicated and you won’t be able to decipher what you are hearing without having some medical terminology under your belt. Of course, you will get faster and understand more as you work, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find work without having some medical terminology classes under your belt first.

Even if you have worked for another company doing medical transcription, you should take more classes when you start your own business. This is something you can note your résumé or credential sheet and it will help you find work.

How to find clients

If you have worked in this field before, you likely have some contacts and you should work those contacts to find your clients. If you are new to the field, you can do several things. First, create a good resume or credential sheet. Outline all of your work experience, not just the experience that relates specifically to medical transcription.

Your overall experience can help potential clients decide if you are a good fit for them. For example, medical transcriptionists should type quickly, so a note about your typing speed is useful. You might mention that you have had experience working in an office environment, which gives the client confidence that you know how to do work that is assigned and do it on time.

It’s advisable that you invest some money in business cards and perhaps a flier or – even better – a brochure that outlines your services. You can hand deliver these to medical offices or you can mail them to targeted potential clients.

Offer to do an audition transcription, whereby the potential client gives you a small transcription job and you complete it at no charge. If the client is happy with your work, you can pick up a new client. This is one of the best and easiest ways for a new medical transcriptionist to add new clients.

Working at home as a medical transcriptionist is a good way for moms to make extra money. You can work part-time or full-time, or a combination of both depending on your needs at any particular time. Many moms find the work exciting and interesting and they don’t get bored. And once a client base is developed, the job can lucrative as well.

Find your passion, find your WAHM job

If you have ever heard the expression, “do what you love and the money will follow” then you understand the basic concept of finding a passion for your WAHM business. You might spend a good deal of time working your WAHM business, so it’s important that it’s something you feel passionate about.

How can you find your passion?

Think about the things in life that bring you great joy. Is it your kids? Your crafting? Your cooking? What do you enjoy doing the most? When you get a small pocket of time that’s not scheduled with other activities, what do you choose to do?

Also think about the things you enjoyed doing before you were a mom. The things you did on the weekends when you had time. What did you do? What brings you joy? You might even mentally wander back to the first job you had when you were truly happy.

Your answers to the questions give you a sense of what your passions are. Then think about how you can turn these in WAHM businesses.

Turn that passion into a business

If you are an excellent cook, you might turn your passion for cooking into a personal chef business, a catering business, a business that supplies muffins and treats for offices, or even a menu planner (where you provide other moms with pre-planned menus that they simply follow each week when cooking for their own families).

Let’s say you adore children, yours and others. You can’t get enough of them and enjoy each moment you spend with children. It’s not your desire to “get away” from them to work, but to include them as much as possible. In that case, your WAHM business might center on children in some fashion. You might tutor kids, or open a home daycare.

If you are a crafter, you can turn that passion into a business of many different sorts. You might make your crafts and sell them at craft shows, or on Etsy.com or even on eBay. Some women have trunk shows in their home where they sell their wares. This works especially well if you are selling fashion accessories or jewelry that you make.

What if you don’t have a passion?

You might think about the things you like doing and realize that those things don’t translate well into a business. What then? Then it’s time to reexamine the things you like to do. That is, you might find that your passions do lend themselves well to a WAHM business.

Are you passionate about watching television? If so, you can turn that passion into a blog that might get a good number of readers. You might find a job reviewing your favorite shows for a funny or irreverent site.

There are sites that pay for book reviews; if you are a passionate reader, you might write book reviews that net you some pay. You can also set up a blog that is written for passionate bloggers. Learn how to market it and you could have a nice little income for yourself from that blog.

If you are passionate about fitness, you might find a WAHM job as a personal trainer, providing you have adequate equipment and space at your home. You might also find a niche for yourself as a personal fitness motivator, providing customers with detailed and customized fitness plans and motivation.

Finding a business that is rooted in your passion isn’t hard once you examine your basic skill sets and combine that with your passion. You’re sure to do well when you start with the things you love doing.

Tips for Successful Blog Marketing

You have created your blog and not it is time to market it for success. How do you do this? How do you go about getting your blog out there to be seen and known by others? How do you draw readers and keep them coming back for more? There are many ways to get your blog out there and known by others. This can be known as challenging for some and just quite easy for others. If you have ever had a successful blog before then you know what it takes. You are not going to get anywhere by just setting up a blog and hoping that people will find it and read it. You are not going to gain any links, nor a higher search engine ranking by just having a blog. This is all part of blog marketing. Anyone can do it, even you.

Successful blog marketing tip number one. When you first create a blog, of course it is unheard of. No one knows anything about the blog unless you give them the link and show it to them. However, for a new blog that has never been seen, there are many ways to get it out there and known. You just need to know how. The first thing that you can do is to allow RSS feeds be taken from your blog. Allow other websites and blogs to publish your same exact blog. When you do this, they are giving you a link back to your blog, and also telling their readers all about your blog. You will get more traffic than ever with this tool. RSS feeds are wonderful for promoting and getting your blog out there.

Blog marketing tip number two. Update your blog frequently. We can not put enough emphasis on this tip. If you tell your readers that you are going to update your blog daily, then do it. If you tell them that you will be writing in your blog weekly, don’t let them down. Your readers are what makes your blog successful. You may not realize this in the beginning, and you will have few readers in the beginning as well, but you will eventually build a readership base and have people checking out your blog regularly. Maybe you do not plan on telling your readers how often you will update your blog. That is ok too. However, think about this, if you were reading a blog on a weekly basis, and you expected to see the blog that you like to read updated at least once a week, you would be very disappointed to find out that it was not. Sure, things happen that might prevent you from updating, and that is expected, and excused, but week after week can hurt you and cause you to lose readers.

Tip number three. While you are working on your readership base, and trying to gain readers, you are going to find that commenting on blogs that are relevant to yours will surely help. Find a blog that is on the same topic to yours, or close to it and leave comments. You can also make a track back with your blog postings to comment on your own blog. Doing so will probably more than likely give someone else the urge to track back to your blog. Which will be good for it as well. Commenting on blogs that get many comments will make yours be seen by those interested in that market. You will gain traffic and readers that way, and it is easy as well as free.

The fourth blog marketing tip. Learn and apply SEO to your blogs. SEO is search engine optimization. You are going to find that if you want your blog to go anywhere, you need SEO, and you need to know how to use it to the advantage of your blog. So don’t forget to make sure the search engines can find your blog.

Work hard to be at the Top of the Blog Marketing News

Blog marketing is a serious business. However, if you are into blog marketing and make your living off of your blogs, you are quickly going to realize how important staying on top of the blogging news is. Blogs are also known as web logs, and are used for many things. They are used for journaling, promoting things, and just getting your point across at times. Using a blog to get any of these things done is a great thing. That is because so many people love to read blogs, and they like to hear what others have to say. If you are a blog owner, then chances are you read blogs yourself and often appreciate other’s views on things. Whether it is something that you are looking to purchase, a hobby, or news. Blogs are loved by many.

Blog marketing is only as hard as you make it. You market a blog a lot like you do a website. You are going to find that blog marketing is somewhat less expensive than owning a website though. For example, when you buy a domain, you do not buy it for life, you only buy it for so many years. That can be just one year, or more. Which is a personal preference. So, starting a blog does not have that cost up front that you are looking at for a website, nor does it cost anything monthly to host as a website would. With all of the free blog options that are available to you, there is no need to pay for one.

When you are blog marketing, it is a great idea to stay on top of the news for blogging as well. This will ensure that you are aware of the new things and tools that become available to bloggers. Whether they are promotion tools, or tracking tools, any of them will allow you to keep track of your blog and market it better than ever. Whenever a new tool or technique comes out, you can bet that it will be talked about in the blogging news. Which is great because that makes you as well as other bloggers aware of what is going on.

Not only does blog marketing news make you aware of new things, but it also keeps you up to date on old things that you all ready use. For example, if pinging your blog no longer was good for a blog, you would definitely find out about it in the blog marketing news. So, it can be used for new techniques and tools as well as old ones.

Blog marketing news can be found anywhere that you would go to find website marketing news. You will see that it is also blogged about so if there is anything particular in the news that you are looking for to read about blogging, you will not have to go far. But by reading other blogs about the new news, you are able to get others views on the tools and techniques as well.

As you can see, it is very important to keep up to date on blog marketing and the new things that come out for it. Keep an eye out for the next biggest thing to hit the blogging world and be among the first to break the news.

How Hard is Blog Marketing?

Marketing your blog is as simple or as difficult as you want it to be. However, if you have never had a blog before, and never marketed anything in your life before now, it may be a little more difficult to understand. If that is the case, you should start of with a blog and just journaling in it to see what it is like. Keep it updated so that you can see what is required to get readers, and try some of these techniques listed below.

While you are learning all about the aspects of blog marketing, you are going to find that comments on a blog are also a very important aspect of blog marketing. You will want to be sure that you always answer and acknowledge the comments that are made to your blog as well as others. When you show that you are an actual person that can hold a conversation, you are showing others that you are real and that you really and truly have the best intentions for your blog. Make sure that no comment goes unanswered. When you do this and do it consistently, it will show your readers that you will acknowledge them and answer their questions. That will in return make them come back to see what your answer was if they asked a question.

Having contests are another way that you can market your blog. Having contests on various things would be a lot of fun, and something that will keep your readers coming back. Everyone loves to win things, and you can also make the prize that you are giving away relevant to the market you are promoting on your blog. Some do not realize how effective this aspect of blog marketing can be. While others are reaping the rewards.

Another huge aspect of blog marketing is the track back feature. When you have the track back feature on your blog, you are allowing other people to link to your blog. Maybe someone has a post to post on their blog that is relevant to one of yours. They can use the talkback to your post, and send their readers to your blog so that they know what they are referring to. Another good thing to remember is that if someone gives you a track back, it is a courtesy to return that to their blog if at all possible. This is something that most bloggers all ready know and something that new bloggers should know.

Something else that is a big thing in blog marketing that is frequently overlooked is using SEO on your blog, which stands for search engine optimization. SEO will help get your blog out there and read, and will also help you get a better ranking with Google. Being as high as you can be in the Google search engine results is something that you want. Doing this will allow your blog to get out there so that people searching for things that are relevant can find it.

While there are many aspects of blog marketing, you are going to see that these are all the most important. If you have all of these tools and techniques in place, then chances are you are getting some great traffic. If not, just keep working on it. Hard work has never hurt anyone and you will eventually be rewarded.

How to use Internet Blog Marketing to your Advantage

The world is abuzz with the news of blogging being the new marketing tool. However, you have yet to start one of your own, and pretty much figure that you are the last person on earth that does not have one. While you may think that this is true, you are going to be shocked that not everyone has a blog, and most of those that do, have them for internet blog marketing purposes. Internet blog marketing is all of the rage just as much as blogs are. When you talk about internet blog marketing, you are meaning that you use the internet to market things on your blog. That would be the most simplest way to put it.

Marketing things on the internet is not as easy as it was just a few years ago. Everyone is into marketing online because of the pay per click programs that everyone wants a part of. And that means that the competition is fierce. In order to market things online and become successful at it, you need to choose a market. You can not just use one single blog to market a number of things unless they are all relevant. If you tried, you would really get no where and fast.

So, choosing your market is even kind of hard to do. Some people will tell you to choose low competition markets to begin with, that have many searches. However, other people will tell you to choose something that you know and love, and that you are passionate about. Even something that you can be known as an expert about. When you do so, you gain trust in the internet world, and many people will know you for your market and your views on it. And that in return will make you successful. However, you must truly know what you are talking about, or you will be found out. It has even been known that some will choose a topic to become an expert on, and when they do, learn all that they can about it before they begin to promote it. Even if they never knew much about it to begin with.

Internet blog marketing is still easier for some than others. It is easier the sooner you get started with it. Because the internet changes every day and things are not all ways the same, the faster you learn the best marketing techniques and tools now, the easier it will be for you once they change and start to become more complicated.

Not only does the interent change frequently, so do the search engines. For example, Google changes about four times a year. You will find that when it does go through a change and update everything, your page ranks are different, and so are your search rankings. When you might have been in the number two spot on Google search for 3 months, after they go through a change you just might find yourself to be on page three.

Internet blog marketing is all about knowing and becoming familiar with the internet. The more you know about it the better off your blogs will be. If you are new to internet blog marketing it won’t take you long to get the hang of creating a great blog that attracts many readers.

Learning to Market your Blog Online

If you are new to blogging then it can be confusing when creating your first blog. However, for a blog marketing guru, it really is not that complicated. Anyone that is familiar with blog marketing online knows that it takes dedication, hard work and consistency. For someone just starting out with their marketing campaign, it may seem like a lot of work with little or no pay off to be seen right afterwards. However, just know that marketing is something that you have to build. You have to work on it and continue to market your blog.

There are many things that you can do to market your blog and get it out there to be seen by the world. One of the most important things is to visit other blogs that are relevant to yours and leave comments. Doing so gets your blog out there to readers of other’s blogs. And in return can get you some new visitors as well as readers. While all of this might seem confusing at first, after a while you will get the hang of it and it will make sense and fall in place.

Posting on your blog on a regular basis is another way to get new readers. Who wants to read a blog that is never even updated? Would you? Of course not! So give your readers what they want with new content and give it to them often. Post daily, weekly or bi weekly and be consistent about it. This way your readers and visitors will know how often to check your blog for a new post.

Know where your traffic is coming from. Know which search engines are directing people to your blog and which are not. Find out what keywords are bringing people to your blog as well. If you know all of this all ready, use it to your advantage. Write more content on the keywords that are working for you and monitor where you fall on the search engine pages that are sending visitors.

If someone leaves a comment on your blog, be sure to acknowledge it. No one wants to have a conversation with themselves, and it will only take a brief moment to reply and let them know you appreciate them. Otherwise if you have a section full of comments and you have not replied, chances are that you will not be getting many more. The readers may even drop you off of their list of blogs to visit frequently as well. Using your head and treating others as you would want to be treated is a big part of marketing.

Make friends with other bloggers. Network with them and find out how they get so many visitors to their blog and what they do to keep them interested. Exchanging ideas with other bloggers that are successful is a great idea and a good way to make friends. If you want, you can even become friends with other bloggers offline as well. Use this to your advantage and do not just take from the conversation though, be sure that you share all of your blog marketing techniques as well with your new found blogging friends.

If you happen to be quoting an article from another source or blog, always be sure to provide a link back to the original. Other wise this is known as plagiarism and something that is looked down on in the world of marketing. Stealing someone else’s content is not a good idea and not something that you will get away with. You will get caught if you try to say someone else’s work is your own of it is not. This is not a good way to start off in the blog marketing world as well.

Blog marketing is a great way to make extra income and get your blog out there and known. Have patience and use these tips to drive people to read your blog and earn yourself some money.

Tips for Marketing your Blog

The longer you have been blogging for the easier blog marketing gets. However, if this is your very first blog and you are wondering how to get readers to it then you are in the right place. First let me just say that marketing your blog is going to require patience, and being consistent. You will have to update your blog frequently if you want to keep readers coming back for more. We are all guilty of making a blog, wanting it to be great, putting only one entry into it and then never going back to update it again. I think everyone in cyber world has done this at one time or another. Here are some great tips to use when trying to get your blog out there and get new readers.

Make sure that your blog has the track back feature. Let me tell you why. When you have the track back feature on your blog, you are allowing other people to link to your blog. Maybe someone has a post to post on their blog that is relevant to one of yours. They can use the talkback to your post, and send their readers to your blog so that they know what they are referring to. Another good thing to remember is that if someone gives you a track back, it is a courtesy to return that to their blog if at all possible.

Having a Google account and submitting a sitemap is almost a must when you are blog marketing. Doing so will allow Google to know how often you are updating your blog and they will automatically know of any changes that you have made to it as well. This will let Google get those new pages indexed faster and get them into search results much quicker than if you did not have the sitemap. There is a certain way you have to do the sitemap for Google, and they can explain that to you. Just know this is an important step to blog marketing.

Exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blogroll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor.

You are going to want to be sure that all of your posts are formatted. Doing so will leave out any confusion for the search engines and you will have everything nice and neat and all organized. The label tags are there for a reason when you are dealing with blogs. So using them and not leaving them out is a great idea.

Tracking is another part of blog marketing that is so very important. You want to be able to track your visitors and clickers to know where they are coming from. You want to be able to tell what keywords they searched on to find your blog and where they did their searching. Doing so will help take out all of the guess work when it comes to blog marketing. You will know what keywords are working, and which are not.

Allowing RSS feeds from your blog is also another great blog marketing tool. You are going to find that when you allow RSS feeds, your blog is going to end up all over the internet with a link back to it and that is a good thing. This is a wonderful way to get links to your blog with little or no effort. People that subscribe to your blog’s RSS feeds are able to then post your blog posts on their sites or blogs. Which in return gives you a link on their site or page that they have you on.

Blog marketing is only as hard as you make it. Get your blog to the top using hard work and patience.

How to keep the kids occupied when you work at home

For many women, the idea of working at home is a dream. They like the idea of being at home for their kids after school, or if someone gets sick. There’s no longer any concern when a school break comes around. The kids have a place to be.

But there are some challenges to working at home with kids underfoot. Whether the children are younger or older, there can be challenges. Those challenges might be a little more manageable when the children are older, but there are challenges nonetheless.

Very young children

If you work at home and you have an infant or toddler, it’s unreasonable to assume that you can work full-time during the day and have the children at home as well. But all is not lost. Many moms find suitable solutions.

First, you can hire help to come in and help you with the child or children while you’re working. If your infant generally sleeps the morning away, consider having someone come to help in the afternoon when he’s more alert. Since you will be at home, you won’t have to pay a babysitter as much as you would if you were gone.

Some moms will work very early in the morning before their young child gets up and then late in the evening when the child has gone to bed. Of course, this might mean sacrificing some sleep yourself, but at least until the child or children are older, this can be a suitable arrangement.

Other moms who work at home with young ones will put the child in daycare. This might seem contrary to the notion of staying at home to be with your children, but there are times when there’s no other solution. Since you have control over your hours, you can drop your child off later than you would if you were commuting and you can also pick him or her up earlier. You can also visit at lunch if you like. As your children get older, and enter preschool, this arrangement will no longer be necessary.

Preschool children

If you have preschool-age children, your dreams for working at home become at once easier and more difficult. That is, at this age, children are more likely to play independently, but might also – vocally – demand your attention. This can be a challenge if you work on the phone.

Most moms find that the best arrangement for working at home with children this age is to work when the child is at preschool as well as in the early morning and late evening. Naptime is also ideal. Once your child gives up a nap, you can still institute a “quiet time” each day during which your child can read quietly, watch a movie, or do coloring or other artwork. This gives you a block of time to get some work done as well.

School age children

You might think that as soon as your children are in school, things will get easier. And they will. To a degree. But if you want to work full-time, you must account for those few hours after the kids get home from school and before your quitting time.

Many moms simply take the approach that involves setting up business hours and keeping the kids on a schedule that requires they respect those business hours. You can make clear to the kids that you aren’t available until your business hours are over (perhaps 5 p.m.).

One of the best solutions for most moms will involve keeping the kids busy. If you find many after-school activities for the kids, you might have to drive them somewhere, but otherwise can work undisturbed in the afternoon hours. You might also make an arrangement with other parents to trade off childcare duties. Or, if the kids are older and can play fairly independently, you can offer to host play dates now and then. The kids will be busy and out of your hair and you can finish your day’s work.

Being at home with the children is one of the great motivators for moms who work at home, but it does take some planning and organizing.

WAHMs need to learn the finer art of networking

Getting your WAHM business off the ground can be tough. At any given time, you might be competing with thousands of other businesses who are also trying to get attention for their own businesses. How can you make yours stand out? It’s all about networking.

Networking is simply talking to people, getting the word out about your business and then doing the same for others. In recent years, the world of networking has changed to reflect the impact that the internet can have. If you play your cards right, you can network almost exclusively online.

If you have a WAHM business, you might want to know how to leverage the power of the internet to drive traffic to your own business. Here are some ideas.

Website

Build a website. No longer do you have to know HTML to build a website; you can buy a software program that will build the site for you or you can pay for someone to design the site for you.

Once you have a website, you need traffic to that website, so write – or have written – articles that are targeted to your subject matter. If you are working at home selling your homemade coin purses, for example, you might write and post articles that talk about fabric, the craft of sewing and unique gifts, all while extolling the virtues of coin purses.

Links

Once you have a website, you have something you can direct people to. Having a website isn’t a “build it and they will come” kind of proposition. You need to market that website, promote it in some fashion.

Here’s how you can do that. Read blogs that are somehow related to your subject area. In the case of your coin purse business, for example, you might read blogs that are about housekeeping, crafting, sewing, and fashion. Make comments on blog posts and provide a link to your site. People will read your comments and if they like what they read, they might click on your link. That drives people to the site and provides you with a method to get information about your website out to hundreds or thousands of people at a time.

Facebook

Many businesses create Facebook pages. You might have a personal Facebook page, but this is different. You create a page just for your business and provide as much information as you can about yourself and your business there. You can also provide a link to your Facebook page on the blog comments you leave, as well as provide a link to your Facebook page from your own website.

This can benefit others as well, because you can invite people to become your “friends” on Facebook. If they also have businesses they want to promote, they can become your “friends” and possibly find more friends themselves, which helps their business as well.

Twitter

Yes, everyone these days is “Twittering”. It can be a time waster as people twitter that they “just put dinner in the oven” or are “waiting for a delayed flight”. But many people have also discovered the power of Twitter as a networking tool.

You can post a link to your site in your Twitter profile and you can post comments related to what you do. People will “follow” you and you can “follow” them. As you post blog comments, or you update your web page, or even post updates to your own blog, you can make Twitter comments that include links to these things. You can also add a link to your Twitter page on your website.

It might take some time to get all of these things started, but take the time to do it – it’s all nearly free advertising and can turn into big money for you.

Home daycare a good option for moms working at home

Moms who want to stay home with their children yet work often choose to open a daycare center in the home. In many ways, it’s an ideal scenario for the mom who wants to work at home. You can be with your children, they don’t have to go to daycare, you’re at home and it can be a profitable home business. But there are pitfalls.

Why do you want to open a daycare center?

If you’ve considered opening a home daycare center, ask yourself why. What are the benefits to you? Is it so you can be with your children? If so, consider their ages and how well they might handle seeing you care for other children. Is it so you can stay at home and make a living? If so, consider that having many children in your home can result in a lot of wear and tear on your furniture and other belongings.

Before deciding that it’s time to take the plunge, it’s important to consider issues like these first.

Things you need to get started

Before you even make up a flier for your home daycare business, you must take care of same basic business issues first.

Each state has different requirements for your home daycare, and there will be local requirements you must meet as well. At minimum, these requirements will likely include having first aid and CPR certifications, a food handling permit, and a business license. The local requirements might include having a fire inspection done, passing some basic tests and sometimes even taking specific classes.

In addition, you’ll want to stock your daycare with the essential products and tools you’ll need to run your business. Some of these items might include toys, art supplies, sippy cups and plastic plates and other items. Before you make any purchases, you’ll want to consider the age of children you intend to enroll. While you can have children ranging from infants up through school-age, you might want to focus on a specific age range.

If your own children are preschoolers, for example, you might want to focus on enrolling preschoolers so you can run a preschool curriculum and at the same time provide good playmates for your own children. You might prefer caring for infants and want to start with enrolling infants only.

Depending on the age of the children you do plan to care for, pay careful attention to your local requirements about how many children you can care for in your home. You might be able to hire extra help if you want to exceed the ratio of adults to children, but there will be overall limits on how many children you can care for in general as well.

Structure

Both the children in your care and your family members will benefit from having a structure in the home daycare. Make sure you have a set schedule for when children can be dropped off and (even more important) when they can be picked up.

Talk to parents about your system for discipline (and include it in a parent handbook as well). Write up contracts outlining the financial obligations – what kind of payments you’ll expect and when. Have a system for how to handle delinquent payments. Set up a fee schedule for parents who are late retrieving their children.

The more you treat your home daycare like a business, the more the parents whose children are in your care will also see it as a business. They will treat you like a skilled professional rather than a babysitter.

Problems

You will have problems. You’ll run into situations like the child whose parents said he was potty-trained, yet he clearly was not. You’ll run into problems with difficult parents and difficult kids. You might have problems with billing or collecting payments. You might run the risk of someone reporting you to child protective authorities when you’ve done nothing to invite it.

Before you open your at-home daycare center, consider all the problems you might run into and consider what your reaction will be to them. If you think you need to have a lawyer draw up your contracts, then spend a bit of money and do that. If you think that you might need to have helpers, hire them.

Opening a home daycare is an excellent options for moms who want to work at home. Plan ahead and do the necessary legwork for a seamless business experience.

Beware of Blog Marketing Scams

Using blogs to market anything to anyone has captured the world’s imagination. Many people across the interent are blogging, and have blogs. A blog is also known as a web log. But you will hear the term blog more often than the term web log. It basically is just an online journal that you can use and publish for the world to read. Whether you choose to write about personal things, or business. Maybe you want to use it to promote products or services. The way you use your blog is totally up to you. However, you should be aware of the scams that are out there, and what to avoid while you are trying to market your blog.

Blog marketing or really any kind of marketing has scams. Just like everything else you are going to come around. There is always someone that is wanting to scam someone else and take money from the ones that do not know better. So what can you do to protect yourself? The best way to protect yourself from blog marketing scams is to become familiar with them, and know what they are. While this can also be hard to do because the scams change as much as you change your clothes, just stay on top of them, and know what to be looking out for.

Many times when a blog marketing scam surfaces, you will find that someone is going to write about it. They are going to try and warn others before they can fall into it. So, just make sure that you read and know what you are getting into. Do your research when you are marketing your blog. Ask others if they have heard about something that you are interested in doing. Chances are, if you are wanting to pay for some marketing of your blog, that you will find someone else that has used every company out there. Get feedback from your fellow marketers for the best results. Ask them if they have recommendations, or know of places that are legitimate.

If you have been scammed, chances are there is not much that you can do other than get the word out about it. However, just remember, if you have paid someone through something like paypal that protects you, then you have a time limit to get your money back and freeze the scammers account. But, that does not always work. Most of the time the scammers are all ready aware of things like that, and they work fast to move to not be caught. If that is the case, you really can not do much else about it other than alert the proper authorities and count your losses.

While there are many that will scam you with blog marketing, there are also many that will not. There are just so many legitimate resources that you are going to find that you can use and trust. The best thing to do if you are new to the blog marketing world is to ask around and find out who is the best for the marketing that you are trying to do. Doing so will often keep you from falling into a scam, and throwing your hard earned money away.

Unfortunately, you are going to come across those that have no regrets what so ever about scamming others. The only thing that you can do is your research at times to make sure that you are using a service or person that you can trust. Ask for references, and make sure that you will be getting the best that you can afford. You will not regret it in the long run, and it will pay off to check someone or a service out before you go and invest your hard earned cash. Actually contact the services or person’s references to make sure that they are who they say, and that they can deliver what it is that you are looking for. You will be glad you did one day.

How to Start Marketing with your Blog

Believe it or not it is easy to start blog marketing. If you all ready have been blogging, you will more than likely pick it up very easily and naturally just as if you have been doing it all along. Also, if you all ready blog, you might find out that you have been marketing the whole time anyways, and just not realizing it.

For anyone that has never blogged before, you will of course want to start a test blog just to get the feel of how it is. You want to become familiar with the blogging platforms that you will be using and know how to make a post. While most blogs are free, you are also going to see that many of them are quite different. You will have to get to know the kind that you are using, and want to use. Otherwise, you might get lost along the way. So starting a blog and just blogging for a little while will help you with this. You can blog about anything that you want to. Maybe journal for a few weeks, or talk about your favorite movies. The sky is the limit.

So once you have become familiar with blogging and what it takes to post and make changes, you are ready to go further. The next thing that you are going to want to do is choose a niche market. You will want to choose something that is low in competition, but yet is something that people are searching for. If you happen to have a hobby or something that you love to do, there you go. Otherwise, you may have problems coming up with topics.

Now that you have your topics in place, it is time to begin blogging. When you are blogging for the purpose of marketing, you want to give your readers something that they have to keep coming back for. You want to peak their interest and make them want more from you. This will keep your readership base up and will allow you to have followers that will follow you anywhere to see what you are going to say next on their favorite topic.

Now that you have a topic, you want to determine just how much time you are going to spend updating and posting in this blog. If you tell your readers that you are going to post on a daily basis, do so. If you let them know that you will be blogging weekly, you should also stick with that do that also. Whatever you tell them, be sure that you do not let them down. Otherwise they will find another blog to read in the place of yours. Which is something that you will not want.

Learning SEO and applying it to your blogs is something else that you may want to do. This will help you as far as search engine rankings are concerned and will allow you to go further up the page. After all, that is the point to all of this, right? If you do not have time to learn what SEO also known as search engine optimization is all about, you may want to hire someone to apply it to your blog for the best results. Some SEO experts are affordable and worth it, especially if you start earning money straight away.

Here’s how one WAHM structures her day

Wondering how a successful WAHM might organize her day? While each mom’s experience might be different, we can provide a simple profile to give you an idea of how you can be productive even with kids underfoot and meals to cook, errands to run and the like.

So, let’s look at Elise’s story.

Elise runs a website design business from home. She doesn’t have a separate office, but rather she works out of the family’s front room, sometimes welcoming clients there but usually working through email and the telephone. She has a husband who works full-time and 2 children – 7-year-old Ethan and 3-year-old Sasha.

Here’s how Elise might structure her day, as she tries to get time in for herself, for the household, and for the kids, all while she works a full day in her business.

Elise gets up early in the morning and tends to emails and work she can do quickly before getting the kids up. Before they head to school, she showers, makes beds, makes them breakfast and lunches, and starts the laundry. Later in the morning, she will take a break from work and start dinner in the slow cooker.

After the kids are at school, Elise works several hours without interruption before taking a quick break for lunch, which she packed the night before for herself. She also goes for a quick jog before heading to pick up Sasha at preschool.

In the afternoon, Elise reads to Sasha and plays a quick game with her before giving her “quiet time” which is when Sasha – who gave up naps long ago – plays quietly while Elise works. During this time, Elise also rotates laundry and pays a bill or two. Mostly, she’s working on client projects.

Right before telling Sasha her quiet time is over, Elise makes a quick work-related phone call. When Sasha’s is quiet time is over, she and Elise head over to school to pick up Ethan. Before heading home the three take time out to enjoy the park that’s adjacent to school.

In the afternoon, the kids want to play outside, so Elise takes a laptop outside and works remotely while the kids play and she keeps an eye on them.

When Elise’s husband comes home, she takes a quick break and makes salad and slices some bread to go with dinner. While he plays with the children before dinner, she finishes up her work day and makes a list of things to tackle first thing the next morning.

There are a few elements of Elise’s day that are worth noting.

First, she plans the evening before for the next day. She makes a quick list of what she needs to tackle first so when she gets up in the morning and she’s groggy and not thinking clearly, she is ready to hit the ground running. She doesn’t need to waste time figuring it out. As part of her evening routine, she also makes sure she has packed a lunch for herself, so she doesn’t waste time making lunch the next day, and she plans and packs the kids’ lunches and snacks. She also knows what will be for dinner the next day and she’s prepared to deal with it when the time comes.

Second, Elise makes time in the day for herself, answering quick personal emails and taking a jog. But she is focused on work and she doesn’t waste time with watching a soap opera on TV or texting friends.

Finally, Elise manages to take time for her kids as much as possible. No matter how busy she is, she tries to remind herself why she is at home in the first place and that’s to be available to her family and children.

Elise’s daily experience won’t be yours, obviously, but much can be learned from her good habits.

What is Blog Marketing all About?

People across the world are using their blogs for marketing purposes. Some make a full time living just from blog marketing and others do it as a hobby. Depending on just how serious you are about marketing your blog, you may find that some aspects of blog marketing are just something more that you are not interested in doing. For example, if you have a blog that you update and just have as a hobby, you are not hardly going to be worried about how many readers you have, as well as how many sales you make from your blog. But, if your blog were more than just a hobby, and how you make an income, you would be wanting to know all of these things and more.

Blog marketing is a technique that many use. While not everyone that has a blog markets it the same way, they all generally have the same goal. Which is more traffic, sales, and readers. When you have all of these things you were successful in marketing your blog. But you should know that just because you have all of these things does not mean that you are done marketing. Actually blog marketing is a never ending task. There will always be something more that needs to be done, and you will never actually be done.

Marketing your blog consists of many things all used together to get the same end result. Such as getting links to your blog or leaving comments on other’s blogs. Using SEO which is search engine optimization is another thing that is important in the world of blog marketing. You should use SEO on your blog just as you would a website. Doing so will get you higher in the search engine results and will result in a blog that anyone can find that is looking for the products or information that you have.

Make sure that your blog has the RSS feeds. Having these feeds will allow others to be able to link to you blog. Having many links a huge part of blog marketing that you want to take advantage of as well. When someone uses the RSS feeds from your blog, they are able to get the posts that you make, and will give you a link back from their blog, or website, whichever they posted it on. This is another excellent way to market your blog and will get you the results that you are looking for. You can also use RSS feeds from someone else’s blog on your blog, and return the favor.

Blog marketing entails many things as you can see, whether you are blogging for a hobby, or an income is going to make a huge difference in the techniques that you choose to use, as well as the outcome. Be sure that you are using the best techniques that will get you the results that you want and that you are looking for. If you are not sure what that is, just wait before you actually start marketing your blog so that you wont be wasting any time. Wasting time on something that you are not sure about is almost as bad as wasting your hard earned money on it. Do your research, and be passionate about your blog and what you have to say.

How to organize your new home office

Organizing a home office can be difficult. Your work space might be shared with home space. The desk at which you work throughout the day could be the same desk at which you pay bills at in the evening.

That creates a particular problem for organizing your home business items. You might not give this much thought in the beginning, but there are many reasons why having an organized work space will benefit you. In addition, keeping your work items separate from your home items can help you at tax time.

Let’s look at some ideas for organizing your at-home office.

First, consider where your home office is – or will be – located. If you are able to take over a room in the house, you are in good shape. Organizing will be simpler than those who share another space in the house, like the family room or master bedroom.

Either way, consider the unique challenges that your space poses. Where you can you file your papers and other items that need to be organized? Do you have a space for your notebooks or manuals that you might need? If you sell items, do you have space to store your samples and display materials?

Next, purchase just enough organizing materials that will help you get the job done. We say “just enough” because many of us can go crazy buying organizational helpers. Things like files and boxes and white boards can send us into a purchasing frenzy. We go crazy. But if you buy too much, you can overwhelm yourself and create a situation that’s ultimately contrary to creating a solid and useful workspace.

Try to get yourself organized before you begin working. If you are setting up that home office, you will thank yourself over and over again for taking time to organize things before you actually began working. This creates a seamless transition into working at home.

All of this organizing can be made more difficult if you share your space with the rest of your family. If you work in the family room, for example, you will not only need to make sure your items are kept separate from the rest of the family’s items, but that they are somewhat decorative. You won’t have the luck to have an office to make a mess out of. You’ll want your space to be clean because you and your family as well as guests will see the space.

Finally, as you think about organizing your work space, consider exactly what you need the office space to do. If you sell cooking items, you’ll need an area to store your samples (or perhaps those could be stored elsewhere) as well as files for customer information and catalogs. If you run an in-bound calling business, you really only need a place for your headset and phone and perhaps a notebook and pens. You might also need files for your paperwork.

In the end, you want your home workspace to work well for you but without doing more than it needs to do. If you waste time making the space do more than you need it to, you are committing yourself to a larger investment of new business money, and you’re taking more of your home space than you need to. While working at home is ideal for many people, most home businesses will naturally encroach somewhat into the family space. Your goal is to keep your items organized and to create a good working environment but without forgetting that your home is first priority.

Blog Marketing Tips

Blog marketing is easy if you know what to do. You have to be persistent and want success however if you want your blog to do well. You cannot just make a post and forget about it. You have to continue updating your blog and marketing it so that it will become popular and one that everyone wants to read. There are other ways as well that are good marketing your blog. Keep reading for more information.

Interviewing people and posting it on your blog is an excellent way to market it. Just be sure that the people that you interview pertain to the market of your blog. You want all of your posts to be relevant, including any interviews that you might do. For example, if your blog market was vacuum cleaners, and you did an interview with the owner of Hoover vacuum cleaner; that would definitely pertain to your market.

If you hear any news on the market of your blog, be sure that you post it. Everyone loves news, and event he readers of your blog will appreciate you blogging about the current events in the market that you are blogging about. Something to keep in mind when blogging about the news is the more current the news, the better. No one wants to reread old news, so it is a great idea to try and stay as current as possible when you are blogging about the news.

Contests are another way that you effectively market your blog. Having contests on various things would be a lot of fun, and something that will keep your readers coming back. Everyone loves to win things, and you can also make the prize that you are giving away relevant to the market you are promoting on your blog.

While good content is something that you will need for your blog, you also want to ensure that it is original content as well. You can market a blog with something that is copied and that you do not own the rights. Plagiarism will get you in trouble with Google as well as the person that originally wrote the content. Be sure that all of your posts are ones that only you own the rights too. This is a great thing to know and do when you are marketing your blog.

Press releases are also an excellent way to market your blog. Sending out a press release or having one made for you is a great idea. You will find that they are even affordable for most budgets, and some companies offer a package deal for example, if you let us write your press release we will submit it for half price. Who could resist a deal such as that? Especially when you are budgeting and trying to get the most from your funds.

Comments on a blog are also a very important aspect of blog marketing. You will want to be sure that you always answer and acknowledge the comments that are made to your blog as well as others. When you show that you are an actual person that can hold a conversation, you are showing others that you are real and that you really and truly have the best intentions for your blog. Make sure that no comment goes unanswered.

Marketing a blog comes naturally for some and can be a little harder to focus on for others. Another important thing that you will want to do for your blog is to be sure that you find links. Exchange links, get one way links, and ask for more and more links. You will never have enough links to your blog. The more links the better in this case.

Blog marketing is not hard to do. Just be sure that you follow all of the proven and tried techniques that others are talking about and you won’t go wrong. Patience and dedication will pay off in the long run.

Get the phone: Start an at-home call center business

With just a few small investments in training and equipment, you can start an at-home inbound call business and create a work schedule that’s flexible and sometimes lucrative.

Many WAHMs find that inbound calling is a great business to start at home. Though you won’t have your own business, but will work other companies, you can control much about your work environment.

What is inbound calling?

First, let’s understand our terms. Inbound calling refers to calls that you answer for companies. Usually it’s to take orders, but it can also be to perform certain customer service tasks.

There are many companies (like FedEx, 1-800-Flowers.com and HSN, to name a few) that contract with other companies to do inbound calling. You are hired by the company that has a contract with, say, FedEx, as an independent contractor. Usually there will be tests, trials and others criteria to determine if you are the right fit for the company.

Most often, you can choose the hours you work, though some companies might require a set schedule from you. When you are “at work”, you will answer calls for the company, routing them to the appropriate place, or taking orders (you will be logged into a site that allows you to input the order) or performing customer service tasks like allowing people to pay on a bill, or change an address, or ask questions about items.

How can you do this at home?

Once you decide that inbound calling is for you, you have to take several steps. First, apply with companies that contract to do this kind of work. As you go through the application process, you will find that each company has different requirements for you. Some might ask you to incorporate your business, which is an investment on your part. Others will let you operate as an independent contractor.

There will be requirements for equipment. For example, you will be required to have high-speed internet access and most likely a wireless headset along with a landline phone (not a cordless phone). Some might require – or suggest – that you have a dedicated phone line.

As you work through the application process, you might be given written tests on the particular company you will work for, and you will also likely be given verbal tests, where someone will call you and act like a customer. They will be able to judge how well you would do in a real situation.

Don’t assume that you must have inbound calling experience to do this at home. Although if you have done this in the workplace before you might have a better chance of getting the job, people who have no experience at this also manage to get hired. If you can find your way around the internet, and can talk articulately and clearly, you can do this job.

Is inbound calling right for you?

If you are a mom who works at home, you might think that taking calls is dangerous. The kids might be noisy, or you might have little time to work when the kids aren’t around.

Most moms who work at home doing inbound calling will purchase a noise-cancelling headset. This ensures that no matter what noisy activity is swirling around you, it won’t be heard through your headset. Although you can work during the day when the kids are home, you can also schedule yourself to work on weekends or at night when the kids can be otherwise occupied.

Although there can be an investment up front for those looking to do inbound calling from home, doing this kind of work can be interesting, lucrative and is great for the social mom who wants to work at home but doesn’t want to give up talking to other adults.

WAHM 101: How to tell if you’re ready to become a WAHM

More and more women are choosing to stay home but still pursue a career. The old idea that women had to choose to be at home or away at work no longer applies. But if you currently work outside the home, you might wonder if you can take the plunge and become a WAHM.

Perhaps you have the business idea, or you have the acumen to start something new, but you just aren’t sure that you can actually do it. How will you know when the time is right? There are a few things to consider.

Can you afford it?

First, consider finances. Depending on what business you plan to work at home, it might take some time for you to make money in your new venture. Can you afford to live on your spouse’s income only during that time?

To determine if you can afford your WAHM venture, first do a budget and figure out what your base living expenses are each month. Does one income cover that expense? If not, do you have enough in savings to cover the difference if need be for the first few months of your WAHM business?

If one salary isn’t enough to cover the expenses, do you have savings that you can pull from if necessary? If not, consider working a few more months while putting as much as possible in the bank.

Before you take the plunge, also consider what kinds of start-up expenses there will be for your business. Can you afford to make that investment? Remember that some start-up expenses are tax-deductible, but you still have to be able to make the purchases and investments now.

Can you handle it?

Working at home is often harder that it might appear initially. While the idea of working at home could hold some romance for you, the reality is that it’s much harder for most people than they initially realize, especially when there are child rein the house.

So ask yourself if you will be able to find the time and quiet to effectively work at home. Think about the kind of job you’ll be doing. If it requires phone work, consider that you need to have quiet in the house before you can do that work. If it requires computer time, is there a computer that you can use often for your work? Do you have a good area that you can claim as your workspace?

Once you have secured a spot and know what you’re going to do, think about the family arrangement. If you have very young children who aren’t even in preschool yet, do you have plans for how you will work around them? Do you have family who can help you or could you hire a babysitter? If you need to work full-time and your kids are in school, how will you handle your work time once they are home from school? How about holidays, days off and summer vacations?

Are you ready to make change?

Transitioning from being a mom who works outside the home to one who works at home can be tough. Or, if you’ve been at stay-at-home mom, it can be difficult on your family, who must make the transition from seeing you as very accessible to them to being concerned with other matters.

Ask yourself these hard questions about transition. Are you ready to work at home? Can you handle the isolation? Do you think you can be a work at home mom and still see to your family’s needs? Most moms decide to work at home because they want to be available to their children; if you plant your children in front of the television so you can work, you haven’t necessarily succeeded in your mission.

If you’ve been thinking about becoming a WAHM for some time, you likely know the answers to all of these questions already. Once you know that you’re ready for the change, the transition can be fairly simple because your confidence will help provide a good result.

All you need to know Start Blog Marketing

Whether you are new to blogging or not we always want more ideas to drive readers to our blog pages. Marketing your blog the right way will give you the results that you are looking for. You are going to find that you can not just make a blog, post in it a couple of times, and then expect for the world to find you. That just will not happen how much you wish for it. However, you can market your blog effectively, and get the results that you are looking for.

To begin blog marketing you first need a blog. The next step is to ensure that your blog is updated frequently. Post content in your blog regularly for the best results. Some will post once a day and others once a week. Whichever it is, be consistent with it and know that it will pay off to continue posting as you should. This is a great way to get started with blog marketing. You wont have a blog to market if you do not post in it regularly.

While most free blogs all look the same, you can make sure that your blog design stands out. You don’t want your blog to look and feel like everyone else’s, so make it different. Having your own look is a huge plus in the blog marketing world. You will find that most blogs all look the same and you can have your own look by just using HTML and adjusting the code to suit your taste. You are going to see that this will truly make a difference with your blog as well as your readers. Try to get a theme that is going to match the market that you are promoting in your blog. Doing so will make it look even more professional. You don’t want your readers to confuse your blog with others do you? If this is something that you are concerned about, you will definitely want to make sure that you change yours to make more personable. However, if you are not worried about it or concerned about it in the least, you can leave the design as one of the free templates that you see so frequently used.

Something else that will help you with your blog marketing is exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blog roll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor. This is a great way to market your blog that some do not think about or use. If you use this technique to get your blog seen, you will not be sorry. It is a trick you can even use to market your website.

Some WAHM jobs require little selling

You might be interested in working at home but concerned that you will have to sell stuff. It maybe seems to you that moms who work at home sell stuff. They sell Avon, or cooking supplies, or homemade baby blankets. Whatever it is, it’s selling and you want no part of it. Can you work at home without selling stuff?

The answer is both yes and no. That is, while you can work at home without blatantly selling items like skincare and cooking utensils and baby blankets, you will always be selling something – yourself, your services, your skills.

So let’s look at some options for non-selling at-home jobs and discuss what you do have to sell, like it or not.

Website design

Many moms with some skill at website design have traded in the office job for the comfort of working at home and designing websites. If you have even an inkling of skill at this (or very good software that can do a lot of it for you) you can create nice looking websites for clients.

Writing

Online writing is fast becoming a WAHM job that’s overtaking many others. You can write articles for clients or you can write articles and then market them to potential customers. You can write for revenue-share sites and you can write eBooks and then sell them.

Daycare

Many moms open daycare centers so they can be at home with their children but still provide a second income for their family. This works well for many moms because they can provide that second income all while also providing playmates for their own kids.

Inbound calling

One popular job for WAHMs is inbound calling. In this business, you take calls from people making orders from infomercials or shopping networks, or even take pizza orders. You might also perform basic customer service tasks.

Bookkeeping

If you have ever worked as a bookkeeper or in some similar capacity, you can work at home as a bookkeeper, keeping the books for local businesses and perhaps even online businesses. This is an ideal position for the mom who wants to make a nice income at home but who wants to work exclusively at home.

Tutor

Many former teachers are discovering the earning potential of being an online tutor. In this capacity, they tutor students who are having problems in a particular subject area. Most of the work is done exclusively online, reducing the need to travel to work or see clients in the home.

Are you selling, though?

All of these jobs we talk about above require a certain level of marketing. You must market yourself in order to make yourself desirable to clients. That means you are selling something – yourself. If you are so uncomfortable with the concept of selling anything that you don’t think you can even sell yourself and your services, then working at home might not be ideal for you unless you are employed and simply work at home for your employer.

But if you decide to work at home in your own business, you must learn to market yourself. You must learn and accept that you have to market, or sell, yourself to make yourself appealing to clients. That’s simply part of the game.

Having said that, though, it’s not the same to market yourself and sell your services as it is to sell clothing or skincare products. If you want to get away from the direct selling that those types of jobs might require, you can do many other things at home that only require you to sell yourself and your services.

The online world offers many opportunities for WAHMs

If your interest in working at home focuses on a job that requires no phone use and no leaving the house for work, you might be looking for an online job.

What’s an online job? Basically, an online job is that which you get online, work online and that requires you only to have a computer and some other job-specific tools. Many WAHMs find that online jobs work well for them because they can work whenever and however they want and can withstand many interruptions without much problem.

Ebay

One of the most well-known of the online jobs, Ebay has made many a mom a nice income from home. You can sell any number of items on Ebay, but moms often sell used baby and children clothing, custom clothing, collectibles and other such items.

Selling items on Ebay comes with its own set of challenges. There is shopping to be done, so that you can build an inventory of things to sell, and the job requires good customer service skills. Some customers can be difficult to deal with and you don’t have the advantage of looking them in the face when dealing with them.

Making money on Ebay has become a bit tougher in recent years as postal rates have risen and Ebay fees have increased. Smart WAHMs have adjusted how they sell in order to keep their profit consistent. They might sell clothes in “lots” rather than single items. They might seek out new methods for acquiring goods, and buy in bulk so they can get a better deal on inventory.

There’s little investment necessary to sell on Ebay, other than a computer (high-speed access is recommended for uploading auctions), and inventory. It also requires the investment in basic mailing materials and sometimes business cards.

Writing

Several recent national news stories have pointed up the many benefits of writing online. From professional writers to people with little writing experience there are many opportunities for people who can put words together into a compelling whole.

To become an online writer, you can begin with sites that let you upload your stories and then pay you a small amount based on how many page views the article gets. This is ideal for a new writer who might have a hard time taking on clients, but can write well. Once you have established yourself on these sites -- and made a few dollars to boot -- you can begin finding clients.

There’s little investment required to become an online writer, other than a good computer and word processing program. If you join sites to bid on work or acquire new clients, you might pay membership fees there.

Online marketing

Many WAHMs have learned and conquered the world of online marketing, which allows you to market any number of items. Many people market eBooks and promote them over the web, then get a cut each time someone buys the book.

To that end, you can also build websites and get a small cut of the profits from when people click through the ads. You might start a blog (which also places this in the writing category) and promote it in a professional manner, bringing advertisers and many readers to your site. Some bloggers can claim incomes of more than $100,000 each year.

There are many opportunities for moms who want to work exclusively online. All it takes is a little research and creativity.

Blogs are good for Marketing Online

Blogging is the new way of keeping in touch with the world. They are pretty much a platform that you can use that will allow you to post your thoughts on most any subject that you want to. They can be used for journaling, promoting, writing, and publishing, anything that your heart desires. However, if you are a beginner and new blogging as well as marketing, there are some very important things that you will want to know.

Blog marketing is pretty easy if you have a marketing mind. You are going to find that many people use blogs as a diary, and many times these blogs that are used for this purpose are not intended to make them money, but simply a way to put there thoughts out there and find others that are going through the same thing. If you have never even had a blog before, the simplest thing that you can do is to start one, and just journal in it for a while. This will allow you to learn just what it takes and what it is all about to keep up a blog. When you are just journaling your thoughts and what is on your mind, you have nothing to lose and nothing to gain. You don’t even have to make your blog public if you don’t want others to read what you have to say. That is a personal preference. However, doing this will let you see how it works. Then you can move on to trying to market a product or a service.

Using a blog to market something is cheaper than using a website. This is because there are so many free ones out there that you can use to get the word out, and they are really just as good as having a website that you pay for. There are of course some advantages to having your own URL, but for a beginner, a free one will work until you get the hang of it and want to move it all over onto your own server. The free blogs are just not that customizable. If you are not familiar with HTML, you are going to find that your blog will look like everyone else’s. But, that is ok in the beginning. You can always make changes later on once you are becoming successful.

When you have your own blog, you are in charge of the content that is posted on it. You can decide what is said, and what is not. You are after all writing it all, right? So, the sky is the limit. Whether you want a blog that does website reviews and takes nominations, or you want to sell things that you make out of your home, the choice is yours. Using a blog to get the word out about whatever you want too is a great way to market and promote something.

Blog marketing can get complicated if you let it. It is really only as hard as you make it. While there are some bloggers out there that are making a six figure income with the use of blog marketing, we all know that it can be done. We just want to know how. Well, for any beginner, start small, and be consistent. The six figure bloggers all did. They started with one, built it up, and then added another blog, built it up. Then, keeping up both blogs and not letting them fall behind, they continued to add more and more. Of course they had help, and they outsourced a lot of their work. If you are looking to make a massive income with blogging, you will need some help.

Blog marketing is a great thing to learn. If you can sell things from a blog, you can sell them anywhere. Making money by using a blog is one of the most satisfying things that you will ever learn how to do. You will not make money overnight, but if you put effort into your blog every day you will soon reap the rewards.

Scheduling the key for WAHMs

To be successful working at home, you must have schedules. It’s easy to get sidetracked with the laundry, the cleaning, and the errand-running. But to have a successful business that brings in the necessary income, staying focused on the job at hand is essential.

How can you do that? It’s all about scheduling. Let’s say that again – schedules are good, schedules are essential, schedules will keep your productive at work and in control at home.

Why do you need schedules?

Especially if you are a more creative thinker, scheduling things can seem rigid and unwelcome. You might not like the idea of having to schedule when you get things done, or the idea of planning meals ahead of time. But doing these things actually provides freedom.

When you work at home, you are shoulder to shoulder with the mess, the laundry, and the children. It’s easy to get sidetracked trying to take care of these things. But if everything is on a schedule (even the children, if they are home during the day), you can get more done. You’ll be able to focus on work when you’re working because you won’t get sidetracked thinking about all the other things that you need to get done.

How do you schedule?

Think about the things that you need to get done on a daily or weekly basis. Consider the laundry, the cooking, the general cleaning and the childcare. If you know that you are usually home on Sundays, for example, you can plan to make Sunday laundry day. You don’t allow yourself to do laundry on any other day but Sunday and you stick to that schedule. During the week, you won’t get sidetracked folding laundry.

Planning menus is essential. If you are the primary cook in your house, you must know what you are gong to cook each day or at the end of your workday, you’re going to end up in the car in the fast food lane. Since most women choose to work at home in order to be more available to their family, working at home all day and then providing takeout is hardly a step above.

Instead, plan a week’s worth of menus at a time. Ideally, you will plan a month’s worth of menus, but you can start with a week. Buy all the groceries you need for the week and even clean and cut veggies, put meat in marinades and measure out rice ahead of time. When you close up your work shop for the day, you can easily get a simple meal on the table because you were organized enough to get some prep done ahead of time.

To be efficient in work, it’s best if you just work when you’re working. That means don’t get sidetracked with paying bills or ordering books for your child’s book collection. Save those things for evening time, when you are more focused on home endeavors, or for your breaks.

Take breaks

On that note, be structured enough with your time to take breaks. Think of yourself as working in an office. You might head to the break room for a cup of coffee and on the way, have a brief discussion with a coworker about a party you both attended the night before. You might take another break later in the day and make a phone call to your child’s teacher.

If you think of your work at home life in a similar fashion, you can quickly see the results of your structured time. Take regular breaks and during that time, you can send a quick email to a friend or send a text to another. You might make that book order or that phone call. A few minutes later, you return to work just as you would if you worked outside the home.

Get started right

Finally, start each day in an organized fashion. Make sure the breakfast dishes are done, that the beds are made and the house is generally straightened. Sit down to a clean workspace. As you start your work for the day, you’ll have a sense that everything is in order and you can feel at peace focusing on your work needs because there are no other pressing needs you must worry about right now.

Structuring your time as a WAHM might seem like one more thing you must take care of, but doing so will actually free you to focus better at work and at home, even when those worlds intersect.

How much can you make from Blog Marketing?

You control how much you make from your blog’s marketing strategies. When you are using blog marketing to make an income, really the amount of money that can be made is something that you determine. You are in charge of the amount of work that you put into it, and therefore in charge of the amount that can be earned. Of course, the more you do, the more you can possibly make. The old saying, “If you build it, they will come”, is one that is not true in the marketing world of the internet. Not only do you have to build it, you also have to market it and promote it. You have to get your blog out there so that people can find it and know that it exists.

Blog marketing is not something that will give you a limited income. The more you promote and market, the better your chances of making money or more money. Lets say you all ready have a blog set up. You are promoting some services and products through your blog, and you are making a nice little effortless income. Well you want more income; you want to make more money with your blog. What do you do? You promote it more. Maybe you can start with the paid blog directories and submit your blog to those. Investing some of the money that you make is a great idea, especially if you are looking to increase your income.

However, there are also many free tools that you can use to promote your blog as well as techniques. There is the comment section that is on just about every living blog on the internet. The comment section is a very useful and powerful tool that you can use to get visitors back to your blog. For example, lets take a market like model airplanes. You have a blog on model airplanes, and you want more traffic. Well, the first thing that you would need to do is to find a blog that is about airplanes, or models. You can even use your direct market if you wish which are model airplanes. Once you have found an authority blog that gets traffic, and comments on a regular basis, you can leave comments as well. Leaving comments with a link back to your blog will give others that read the high authority blog a way to get to yours. If your blog is of interest to them, they may even bookmark it, and become a regular reader.

If you are not all ready, be sure that you update your blog regularly. Doing so will allow your readers to know when they can come back to your blog for new content. Let them know how often you are going to update, and stick to it. If you tell them you will be updating once a day, do so. Or you just might end up with readers that will not follow you because they can not depend on you to give them what they are looking for; new fresh content.

When you use blog marketing to make money, the sky is the limit. The amount of money that you can make is determined by you, and something that you set. The more work and patience that you put into it, the more money you will get out of it. Write your blog with passion and that passion will infect your readers, and they will keep returning to read what you have to say.

How to find the right MLM for you

Many moms have found success as part of a multi-level marketing company. They might sell skincare or makeup products or seasonings for cooking. The moms who have found success have all found the right company for them, the company that pays well and that provides them with that they need to make their business work for them.

How can you find the right MLM company for you? Think about asking yourself (and the company) the right questions.

What is your take?

This is, how much do you get from each sale? This number can vary widely from company to company so pay attention to this information when you do your research. Less is not necessarily bad. If you sell products that people will buy more than one of (say, those seasonings for cooking), and you get a small percentage of the sale, you’ll likely will do well if people buy several items each time they make a purchase.

Conversely, you might get a lager percentage on some sales, but if people buy those items rarely and only make single purchases, your take might actually be lower than someone else who sells smaller items and takes a smaller cut.

There is no set standard here, but make sure that you can make enough sales to meet your income goals. Ask other company representatives how they do and how much they sell to meet their individual income goals.

How likely will people be to buy the product?

There’s a general consensus among people who sell products for MLM companies that consumable products are the best to sell. That is, products that people use or eat and then need more of. This might be items skincare and makeup, and food products. It can also be products for a hobby, since once the item is used, the customer might want more of that product or a similar product so they can continue their hobby.

In some cases, it can be hard to build a customer base that will come back to you again and again for a particular product. If you decide to sign up with a home décor company, as a representative, for example, you might do well selling to people but those people aren’t going to need more of your product. They might come to you when they need a gift, or they are redecorating a room, but they won’t consume the products the same way they will consume their food products, or need to replace their makeup products.

Of course, you should go with your interests, so if you are more interested in home décor items, then by all means sell them. Your passion for the product will also bring people to you for help and word of mouth will get out that ensures people know you are a good person to buy from.

What is the reputation of the company?

This is important, because the reputation of the company dictates the kind of experience you can expect to have and the experience your customers can expect to have. What do we mean by this? Simply put, if the company has a poor reputation, you will have a tough time selling, no matter how good they are to you.

Ask questions of current and former representatives of a company you are thinking of working for. What kinds of experiences did they have? If they report that their commission was good and they enjoyed some of the perks the company offered, but said that often they ship slowly and bill incorrectly, you need to think twice before signing up. Even if they treat their consultants like kings and queens, your customer will feel slighted if they too are not treated well. In the end, it’s the customer who matters, so make sure that company is one that your customers will enjoy dealing with. And also make sure you are prepared to be the face of that company, even when things don’t go smoothly.

Working as a rep for a MLM company can be very rewarding if you find just the right one. Do your research and make sure that a particular company is the right tone for you.

Business Coaching and Local Marketing

Your job as a business coach is to take a new or struggling business and teach its owner how to see success. This success should be an increase in profits and sales. There are many important components to running a profitable business, but marketing is vital. If you are not already stressing the importance of marketing to your clients, you need to start.

When getting started, create a step-by-step guide just for marketing. Step one is highlighting the importance of marketing. It enables customers to know that a business exists, as well as what they sell. Step two is the consequences for not having a solid marketing plan. This is decreased sales and loss of profits. Step three is sharing marketing tactics.

In terms of sharing marketing tactics with your clients, focus on both local and internet marketing. Some mistakenly believe they should only do one or the other. They should do both, as it expands their reach. The more consumers they reach, the higher the sales. Internet marketing is easy, as most business owners and advertising departments know the internet like the back of their hand. What many companies struggle with is local marketing. So offer a few suggestions, such as the ones outlined below.

Advertising a business in the phone book. Many new business owners list their businesses in the white pages. After all, this is free to do. What they don’t realize is that customers must already know their business name to find a phone number or address. That is why yellow page listings are a must. Yes, they do cost money, but they are a wise investment.

Advertising a business in the classified ads. The internet has made it much easier to stay up-to-date on the news, but most Americans still read a paper in print. For that reason, classified ads are still a successful marketing tactic. In the classified section, most newspapers have an “Advertise Your Business Here,” section. Your client can write a short summary of their business, where it is located, what they sell, and how to contact. For a slightly higher fee, your client can invest in a larger ad with bold printing, pictures, and more.

Advertising a business through mailable fliers. Many business owners tend to sway away from mailable fliers. This is because some consider them an invading form of solicitation. If your client is against this practice, encourage them to purchase a full-page insert in a weekly classified newspaper. This way, mailings are still delivered to doors, but no solicitation occurred. To reduce the risk of angry residents who received unsolicited mailings, your client can include a moneysaving coupon or a free promotional product, such as a magnet bearing the company name, logo, address, and phone number.

Advertising a business through a grand opening or reopening celebration. New storefront business owners need to attract customers. It is best to start with a bang. Help your client plan a grand opening celebration. Offer deeply discounted prices, have free promotional items on hand, host a contest, and hire a radio station to broadcast in front of their store. If you are helping a struggling business, help the business owner make needed improvements to inventory, management, sales, and so forth. Then, work together to plan a grand reopening celebration.

As you can see, there are many ways to market and advertise a business. A professional in the field of business management, you already know this, but not all business owners do. Help your client understand the importance of local marketing and point them in the right direction.